Audi A4 smoke

[smac01]

Hi, hoping someone will be able to help me out as there are no garages in the area who have a clue. I have an A4 2.0tdi 170 which is pumping out loads of smoke when it gets warm, nothing on starting. The smoke is grey/white (looks pretty much like condensation from a cold morning.) but it stinks. No fluid levels have changed in the engine. Car was serviced and timing belt changed a few months ago and a mate suggested it might be that the timing is out. Any Ideas?

[Crasher]

That sounds like a fuelling error, certainly if I had it in and no fault codes came up plus as you say it is not using any fluids, I would peg the cam and crank and see where they were.

[smac01]

Thanks for replying, Local Audi dealer who lifted £600 quid out of my pocket for fitting the belt say that diagnostic machine says car is o.k but a friend said that timing might be only slightly out and not show up. Can a local garage check timing? My mechanical knowledge isn't great.

[Crasher]

To check the timing you have to pull the front of the car forward into what is known as “service position” and then take the auxiliary belt and lower pulley off, and then the timing is checked with a peg in the cam pulley and a plate into the crank pulley. To be honest, I can’t see an Audi main dealer getting the cam timing slightly out.

[wjam]

"To be honest, I can’t see an Audi main dealer getting the cam timing slightly out."

I could... Mine are worse than useless..

WJAM

[patrickhorton]

I had this problem. Do you get all the stinking steam while idling once the engine starts to get warm but then it goes away when it's properly warm?

I had a software update (9973) put in during a main dealer service a couple of weeks ago and it seems to have fixed it.

At the same time as it smoked during warm-up it had an uneven tickover. This is only marginally improved.

Patrick

[patrickhorton]

smac01 : Can you tell me if the stinking smoke thing started after the service? Although I thought mine was improved, it was back smoking same as ever tonight while idling in traffic as it warmed up. As you say, clean as a whistle from cold and not a wwiff of smoke once hot.

More info on yours would be appreciated.

Patrick